BLOG: What's wrong with smartphones today? They're boring

Carriers are hurting, while Apple and Samsung get grief on Wall Street. The root of the problem: Slowing smartphone innovation

OK, forklifts and pumps aren't sexy or very much fun. But they have the potential to change how important work gets done.

Likewise, IBM's development of flexible semiconductors that could be implemented as monitors in the body could have enormous medical benefits, and a Plantronics headset that can pull data out of a Salesforce.com application makes real sense in a sales environment.

I'm not bemoaning the lack of innovation in the technology industry as a whole — there's plenty. But we're not seeing much of that in the realm of the smartphone. Beating on Apple CEO Tim Cook, a popular pastime in the blogosphere, won't solve that reality. Technology doesn't advance on a steadily rising curve. Sometimes it plateaus for a while, and vendors and carriers will simply have to deal with.